


Distance (70 cm) Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

by sodahyuck



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Confessions, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-14 02:44:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20593397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sodahyuck/pseuds/sodahyuck
Summary: Jisung and Chenle from different schools attend the same tuition class.





	1. Chapter 1

Jaemin watches Mr. Suh give Chenle yet another dirty look for leaning over to Jisung’s worksheet for the fifth time, seemingly trying to copy off his precious straight-A student’s work. He watches Jisung curiously eye Chenle’s pen scribbles on his paper, cheeks turning slightly redder, trying to hide his smile while Chenle just outwardly smirks at Jisung who was shyly squirming in his seat.

Next to Jaemin, Donghyuck snorts at the exchange, muttering something about “Mark-sunbaenot romancing him enough”. Jisung looks up, accidentally making eye contact with him and both Jaemin and Donghyuck take this opportunity to try peering over to see what Chenle had written on Jisung’s page from their seats but not before Jisung slaps a protective hand over the scribbles, ears now turning red.

Just when Chenle was about to lean over again with his pen poised over the column of Jisung’s worksheet, Mr. Suh clears his throat, eyebrow quirked, “Donghyuck sit here,” pointing at Chenle’s seat, “and Chenle move there.”

Donghyuck, now seated between Chenle and Jisung, thought of prying Jisung’s fingers off the paper to see Chenle’s scribble but Jisung had already moved on to the next page. _Smartass._

\---

Chenle looks at Jisung, the clock and back at Jisung again. He’s been doing this every ten minutes since getting separated from Jisung. Jisung is a whole _seventy centimeters _away from Chenle and that’s too far c’mon! Chenle comes for tuition _just _so that he can lean on Jisung and make the pretty boy blush. But now he has to pine over Jisung from seventy centimeters away and watch _Donghyuck-hyung _pinch Jisung’s cheeks and call him cute. That’s unfair! And _no_, Chenle isn’t jealous.

Jisung makes eye contact this time when Chenle stares at him yet again and Chenle decides to wink. Needless to say, Jisung blushes _again _and ducks his head to hide his smile and Chenle decides he wants to see Jisung smile again because of him.

\---

They finally get a toilet break and Donghyuck basically _drags _Jisung out of the classroom and into the corridor the moment Chenle leaves the classroom. Donghyuck stares Jisung down for a while until he’s sure that Jisung is going to tell him the truth and finally he interrogates, “Park Jisung, do you like Chenle?”

Jisung squeaks, eyes wide and whips his head around to see if anyone heard that question. But the corridor seems empty enough for him to respond. He nods. Too shy to give a proper verbal answer. But fortunately or unfortunately for him, Chenle, who was just coming back from the washroom, overheard the question and peeked over to see Jisung nodding.

Chenle was congratulating himself for being smart enough to peek, knowing that Jisung would be too shy for a verbal answer when it really hits him. _Park Jisung likes him back._

Chenle thinks real hard about how he would confess; pretty flowers? Chocolates? A card? But why does all of that seems so forced? Why is he thinking so hard? He already knows that Jisung likes him and will probably accept his confession but he wants it to be _perfect. _Because he cares about Jisung feeling good about it too.

In the end, it had been a whole week of fretting and he was getting nowhere. He _almost _considered asking Donghyuck_-_hyungor Jaemin_-_hyungfor help in his desperation since he knows that they’re from Jisung’s school and know Jisung well but he was worried that he would get made fun of or that the plans will get spoiled. Besides, he wants this to be his own effort. He decides on just going and seeing how things play out or maybe he could write it onto Jisung’s paper like how they’ve been flirting this whole time? _Argh! Confessing is so hard!_

\---

Jisung was late for tuition for the first time and Chenle was fidgeting, worrying about Jisung not showing up and him having to hold in his confession in for _a whole week more_. Even all-knowing Donghyuck was surprisingly absent too but Jaemin looks at Chenle like _he _knows what Chenle is up to and Mr. Suh glances at Chenle a few more times than usual which Chenle feels is _odd _but probably because he styled his hair a bit neater than usual today instead of the usual rat’s nest on his head (he wants to make a good impression for Jisung, okay).

_Yeah_, he thinks, _it’s probably just that_.

An hour into lesson is when Jisung bursts through the door, stumbling over his apologies and Mr. Suh just smiles, “Oh yes your dance recital. I hope it went well.” Jisung just nods meekly, mumbling something inaudible in response, making a beeline to the seat next to Chenle’s as usual, much to Mr. Suh’s disappointment. He’s about to open his mouth to change their seats but closes it when he sees Jisung slumped onto his seat catching his breath. Mr. Suh pities Jisung thinking that he’s too tired, opting to change their seats another day.

Jisung is on second page of the worksheet when Chenle leans over and writes on his paper “_you dance??_” feeling a little bad at the realisation of how little he actually knows about Jisung, the guy he supposedly likes. But no time for guilt because Jisung replies underneath with a “_yea hip hop_” and leaves Chenle to his thoughts and continues with his worksheet, sulking at the fact that Jisung didn’t say anything about the hair he styled _just for Jisung _but Chenle also wants to finish the worksheet so that he too can leave at the same time as Jisung and confess to him.

Chenle manages to finish his worksheet on time for the first time and Mr. Suh bewilderedly stares at Chenle handing in his worksheet, mouth agape. Chenle having neat hair and finishing the worksheet? What’s going on? Mr. Suh is just about to ask Chenle if he’d finally been enrolled to obedience school but Chenle is already out the door before he can even form his sentence.

Chenle reaches for Jisung’s wrist to try to get him alone, away from Jaemin, but Jisung’s mom’s car was already pulling up to pick him up and he’s too tired too after his recital so he hops in, but not without saying a quick “bye” to Chenle and Jaemin who smirks at Chenle who absentmindedly waves at the car.

On the bus ride home, Chenle thinks about how quickly Jisung left that he didn’t get to confess and his corners of his lips droop into a pout but he decides that he really likes Jisung so he tells himself he’s going to try again next week.

\---

So he styles his hair again and puts his full concentration into working really hard to finish his work on time. Mr. Suh sees Chenle’s sudden hard work and lets him continue sitting next to Jisung thinking that there might be some good influence rubbing off on Chenle. But Chenle doesn’t realise that this is getting in the way of Jisung’s feeble attempts to flirt with him. And Jisung, in his shyness doesn’t say anything about it either.

Jisung’s heart is crushed. He was hoping that Chenle could have at least a bit of feelings for him because wasn’t he blatantly flirting with Jisung just last week? Was he just messing with Jisung’s head? Maybe Jisung made it too obvious that he liked Chenle so he was just having fun off Jisung’s feelings.

Now that Chenle is starting to ignore him in class, he’s starting to get worried. Styled hair and trying to finish his work early to leave? He’s probably seeing somebody already and going for dates after class. Jisung missed his chance and now he has to watch Chenle go on dates with someone else and buy flowers and chocolates for his probable _girlfriend _because of course Chenle is straight! How did Jisung, a _boy_, even think that he could ever have a chance with Zhong-_heterosexual-_Chenle? Why did he even plan on confessing to a _straight boy_?

His thoughts go downhill in a dramatic spiral and he rushes off immediately after class, without even saying bye to Jaemin and Donghyuck. He can’t bear to look at Chenle thus, misses the way Chenle almost calls after him but shuts his mouth when Jisung disappears out the door in a frenzy. _His mom probably came to pick him up_, Chenle thinks.

\---

Jisung mopes about the whole Chenle-is-straight thing for a few more days until his mom asks him what’s wrong but no way he’s going to tell her; she might pull him out of tuition and he really would never see his Chenle ever again and won’t even be invited to the wedding to watch Chenle exchange rings with some girl and wish it was him. He’d rather watch from afar rather than to never see his favourite boy again. So he just tells her that he’s tired because of the extra dance practices now for his upcoming dance exams that he’s a bit grumpy about.

Then he gets an idea. He tells his mom he doesn’t need her to fetch him after tuition anymore because he has to go back to school anyway for extra dance practice at night. That way, he can linger around Chenle for just a few more minutes before Chenle goes on his date with his _not-boyfriend_. Jisung’s mom offers to change his tuition day to a more convenient one like_ Saturday _but he freaks out at the thought of disrupting his precious weekends and now, there’s practice every day too, so it doesn’t make much of a difference. His mom just shrugs and leaves the room.

With this extra time he has now after tuition, he decides to get Chenle alone after class to just <strike>confess</strike> talk to him. He doesn’t care if Chenle is dating or not because if he keeps his confession in any longer, he’s going to combust.

\---

Jisung nervously makes the first move reaches over to scribble on Chenle’s worksheet “_are you busy after class?_” expecting a “_yes, I hate a date_” but Chenle just looks at him with his new neat haircut and both eyebrows raised at the initiative and at the question. Isn’t Jisung’s mom coming to pick him up?

Much to Jisung’s surprise, Chenle scribbles back a simple “_no_”, then Jisung asks Chenle if he wants to accompany him to the convenience store after class which really does surprise Chenle because isn’t Jisung’s mom coming to pick Jisung up? So Chenle does ask him that to continue making Jisung lean on him to write on his paper and Jisung quickly replies with a “_nah I have dance prac later_” and quietly goes back to his worksheet. Chenle just raises his eyebrows, nods and goes back to his worksheet too because heck if he’s gonna follow his crush to the convenience store he’d better finish his work on time.

Chenle and Jisung leave together after class and simultaneously ignore Jaemin’s side-eye. Donghyuck’s not there thank goodness or Jisung would get an earful or a holler and maybe even not be able to leave.

\---

Jisung wants a Melona bar and Chenle gets a Samanco and secretly gets the Pepero he saw Jisung eyeing and pays for the both of them, which makes Jisung turn a faint pink when he hands the ice cream to Jisung on the way to the nearby park bench to eat their ice cream. _Chenle! Paid! For! His! Ice cream! How chivalrous. Such boyfriend material oh, sigh._

Just sitting and talking, getting to know each other is more than what Jisung expected. Simple things like birthdays, how they’re only born 2 moths apart so Jisung can just drop the honorifics, favourite colours, favourite foods, what’s happening in the schools that they’re in, how Chenle’s in an international school because he’s from China (dumb Jisung never even knew that about his crush), what it’s like being a dance major…

They are so caught up in their conversation that Jisung doesn’t realise it’s time to leave for dance practice until his reminder notification came on and he tells Chenle that he has to go.

Chenle offers to walk Jisung to the dance studio but Jisung refuses, telling Chenle that it’s too inconvenient. But Chenle just shrugs, telling him that he’s curious about how Jisung’s school looks like and the younger shyly agrees and they walk to Jisung’s school together.

As they walk, the distance between them gets smaller and smaller until their hands are brushing against each other. Jisung really wants to hold Chenle’s hand and Chenle wants to hold Jisung’s hand too but they refrain out of shyness to catch each other’s hand.

\---

When they <strike>sadly</strike> finally reach Jisung’s school, Chenle presses the Pepero box into Jisung’s hands and giggles _(he giggles!!)_ as Jisung accepts the little gift with wide eyes before watching him disappear into the dance studio, Jisung turning around at the last second to wave at Chenle before he closes the door.

Once the door is closed, Chenle realises something: he forgot to get Jisung’s number.

\---

Once the door is closed, Jisung realises something: he forgot to confess to Chenle.

But that’s okay since they hung out today. Jisung clutches the Pepero box to his chest and skips to the practice room. Jaemin and Donghyuck are already there with the rest of their dance team and they share a glance knowing that Jaemin saw Jisung leave with Chenle and now he’s at practice looking so happy and blushy, of course he reported to Donghyuck what he knew. But they don’t say anything; let the babie be happy for a while.

\---

Chenle and Jisung do this for a few weeks, going to the convenience store after class to get ice cream, always getting the same flavours, and talking until it’s time to walk Jisung to school. Sometimes, Chenle gives Jisung little things that remind him of Jisung when he drops him off – they’ve gone past snacks and now they’ve upgraded to little trinkets or keychains. And Chenle remembers to get Jisung’s number so now on top of this hangout thing, they text too.

Jisung’s glued to his phone all day, every day texting Chenle. Chenle honestly isn’t doing any better, lunging for his phone whenever he hears that specialised ringtone he set specifically for Jisung.

Jisung is lounging around at Jaemin’s house, with his dance team when Chenle texts Jisung to ask him to hang out on Saturday to “_watch a movie or smth_” and Jisung lets out a squeak of excitement and nearly drops his phone. Then he realises a presence hovering right over his shoulder and _wishes_that he had dropped his phone instead. He turns his head and his face is mere centimeters away from Donghyuck’s smirking one and squeaks again; this time from disgust.

“Our baby going on a date! He’s all grown up now!” Donghyuck jumps up and all but screeches to notify the rest of the dance team, sniffling dramatically. They coo at Jisung as he hastily types out a reply to Chenle and realises with dread: _tomorrow is Saturday_.

Unfortunately for him, Jaemin realises the same thing too and goes full mom-mode on Jisung. “No holding hands, no eye contact, keep a 150cm distance between the both of you at all times and no hanky panky; I have eyes everywhere.” Jisung shudders at Jaemin’s monologue but he has more important things to worry about like what is he going to wear? He’s so nervous; Chenle and Jisung have never seen each other out of school uniform before so he really _has _to make a good impression.

Donghyuck must have sensed Jisung’s dilemma with his self-proclaimed “favourite senior telepathy” that Jisung highly doubted before but now he believes that it might be maybe 30% real because Donghyuck is telling Jisung to come over before the date; Donghyuck’s gonna be Jisung’s “stylist-_noona_” for the date.

\---

Donghyuck definitely did a good job with the styling Jisung has to agree, even adding little details like pretty cherry red lip balm that make his lips softer and not crackly and chapped like the usual nasty.

Jisung insists on paying for the tickets to Toy Story because he chose the movie, watching Chenle stare longingly at the horror movie poster at the next booth but no horror movies for them. Of course, Chenle remembers Jisung mentioning that he gets scared easily and as much as he wants Jisung to cling to him during the scary parts, he doesn’t want to Jisung to get scared and upset on their first _not-_date.

Surprisingly, the movie is a lot more entertaining than Chenle expected, it wasn’t as kiddy as he thought it would be and hearing Jisung laugh beside him was even more entertaining. But hearing Jisung’s teeth chattering was downright worrying. _Poor thing must be cold._Chenle’s oversized hoodie should be big enough for Jisung’s overly broad shoulders right? He pulls off his hoodie and passes it to Jisung, “You’re shivering.”

Jisung eyes the hoodie for a moment and attempts to think of a way to refuse but the cold gets the better of him but he shivers again and accepts defeat, taking Chenle’s hoodie and trying not to blush too hard. Keyword: trying. _Okay, Chenle’s hoodie is the perfect size, is this fate?_

\---

It’s convenience store ice cream time at the at the park bench after the movie to keep up with their mini tradition. This time, they sit close to each other with their thighs and shoulders touching. “The windy night air is cold!” they’d say, but still continue sitting outside even after finishing their ice cream. Chenle watches Jisung tell him about his dance friends and he can’t help but think, “damn he’s so freaking pretty.”

Jisung stops mid-sentence and stares at Chenle with wide eyes. Did he hear that right? Was it just his infatuation pulling tricks on him? Chenle stares back with equally wide eyes. He didn’t realise he had said it out loud. But the timing feels right and he a sudden surge of confidence overcomes him. He repeats with a louder tone, “I said, you’re so pretty. You look so pretty just sitting here and talking. You look so cute pouting when you eat your Melona and your teeth hurt. You look so cool when you work hard in class. And you look so happy when you talk about dancing. You’re so handsome.”

Jisung just looks at him stunned and Chenle frowns at the lack of reaction, confused. He opens his mouth to ask if he said something wrong the same time when Jisung blurts out, “I like you!”

Now, it’s Chenle’s turn to be stunned. He didn’t expect Jisung to be the one saying it first like that.

The windy air is suddenly still and they just stare at each other, both blushing red in the face, not knowing what to do next. Until Chenle slowly leans forward, cupping Jisung’s face, eyes flicking to Jisung’s lips (with that damn cherry red lip balm) and back to his eyes. Jisung squeezes his eyes shut. _He must be scared if this is his first time, _Chenle thinks so he moves his head to the side to press a gentle kiss on Jisung’s cheek, “I like you too, Jisung-ah.”

Jisung slowly opens his eyes seeing Chenle’s face so close to his and blushes even harder, leaning back slightly. Chenle just mutters a “cute” and Jisung ducks his head bashfully trying to will his tomato blush away. He thinks his blush is so dark that it can beat those girl group makeup artists’ works.

Chenle takes Jisung’s hand in his and Jisung snaps his head up when Chenle asks, “Do you want to be boyfriends?”

Jisung just nods shyly, holding Chenle’s hand tighter and leans against Chenle’s arm wrapping around him in a hug. “Boyfriends sounds nice.”

\---

That night, after Chenle drops Jisung off at his house (“It’s on the way don’t worry!”), Jisung gets a text telling him to “_sleep well and dream of Chenle tonight! _”

He buries his face into his pillow and lets out a scream of happiness and realises _he’s still wearing Chenle’s hoodie._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me on twitter @sodahyuck


	2. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stalk me on twitter or whatever @sodahyuck

Chenle and Jisung have been dating for a few months and go on many dates including the theme park where Jisung couldn’t sit on roller coasters and a springtime cherry blossom picnic that Chenle surprised him with on their 100thday. Jisung is a lot more comfortable with Chenle now having spent so much time with each other (and in Chenle’s hoodies).

They’re eating ice cream as usual after tuition, and gaining lots of weight, when Chenle asks Jisung why he likes eating Melona so much. Chenle can’t stand the artificial melon taste, opting for the traditional red bean in the Samanco claiming that he grew up eating _real stuff _back in China. Jisung side-eyes him just shrugs, telling him that growing up in _South Korea _meant that he ate this as a kid. A lot. “There’s nostalgia in the flavour!”

Chenle just laughs at him and grimaces in refusal when Jisung offers him a bite. Though he watches Jisung eat, biting at the ice cream bar as if sensitive teeth isn’t a thing that plagues people’s existence, tongue peeking out of his mouth to catch any stray melting drops of green.

Jisung watches Chenle watch his mouth and smirks. Chenle sees the curve of his lips and he immediately brings his eyes back to Jisung’s, cheeks tinged pink.

Jisung looks at him from under his lashes and asks, “Why don’t you give my Melona ice cream a try, _hyung_?”

Chenle hadn’t heard Jisung address him with honorifics since they first hung out and it does something funny to Chenle’s tummy. Butterflies and all that jazz that Chenle never believed in until he met Jisung.

It’s a well-known fact that Chenle can’t resist Jisung when he looks at him like that, always giving in to his requests of wanting the last bit of popcorn at the movies or Chenle’s hoodie when he’s cold. But let’s face it, Chenle would never deny Jisung anything he asked for with or without the puppy eyes. He’s so whipped that he just nods on instinct. But what happened next stunned him to no end.

Jisung took a nibble of the Melona bar and leaned forward, pressing his lips to Chenle’s.

Chenle could taste the artificial melon flavouring on Jisung’s lips but he could also taste _Jisung, Jisung, Jisung_. He closed his eyes and kissed back, fireworks exploding in his head and electricity buzzing where Jisung was leaning on him. He had wanted this for so long but was worried that Jisung wasn’t ready. So he waited for him and yes, it was so worth it.

Jisung pulled away, face flushed, lips red and swollen turning back to his Melona bar and giggling to himself as if nothing happened, taking another bite of his now-melting ice cream while Chenle slowly blinked his eyes open and dazed, and smiling, hand coming up to touch his lips.

Chenle finally came out of his daze and turned to Jisung, “I think artificial melon is my new favourite flavour.”


End file.
